The present invention is in the field of client interaction with WEB-based sales and service systems, and pertains in particular to accomplishing efficient interaction with low-bandwidth devices.
Computer-aided sales presentations wherein rules-based configurators are employed have long been a valuable tool for allowing a customer or client to configure his or her own order of a product or products. This technique is employed in a network environment whereby a client configures his or her order and sends it over the Internet, or another type of network, to a seller, which can fill the order. For example, a complex computer system has many different features, accessories, options, etc. With the appropriate software program, a client can configure his or her own custom order for a particular brand or type of system. By employing an interactive method a client can apply certain desired features in his product-order configuration that were chosen from options provided by a seller.
More recently, it is known to the inventor that object-oriented, constraint-based configurators have begun to replace rules-based configurators by virtue of their more flexible organization. For example, rules-based configurators rely on set rules that are programmed in a procedural computer language. Partly for this reason, every change in the merchandise offered may require substantial changes in the software, which can be quite a lot of work, considering the fast pace of trade today.
Rules-based configurators are not physically separated from the actual knowledge data and the application for manipulating the knowledge data. Knowledge base configurators known to the inventor have such separation (an applet) therefore, the knowledge base can be changed easily via an editing process. The knowledge base applies the changes via linking to other elements of the process such as the object model.
Generally speaking, an object model representing a product, such as a new automobile, is created using a programming language within a model building application at the sellers end. This object model contains all of the descriptive elements and various features including cost information about the object it represents. A model writer procedure then writes a binary file, which is readable only to applications written in the same environment.
These object models can then be presented to a client having the appropriate software application on the correct platform and using the required language. The client can then enter his desired choices or options via interactive software. A configurator commonly known as a run-time engine insures that the client""s choices are applied correctly. The configurator is also adapted to negate any conflict or impossibility that may arise from the client""s directives.
A difficulty with the current state of the art, which has hampered fast deployment of knowledge bases severely, is that although a knowledge base is superior to a rules base as described above, the knowledge base is language-dependent and not easily transferred across different platforms (i.e. IBM to Macintosh, or even Win 3.1 vs. Win 95). For example, a client would be required to operate in the same computer platform and language to be able to interactively configure his desired purchase. This is a serious problem because it severely limits the targeted on-line community that a seller may reach.
A knowledge base configuration process known to the inventor and described with reference to the priority application Ser. No. 08/962,594, U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,822, listed under the Cross-Reference to related documents section above, effectively solves the above described problem related to language and platform dependency. However, clients interacting with model-presenting companies must download both the knowledge base and the knowledge base configuration software in order to configure a product to hopefully reflect the desired specifications and features, which are offered.
According to an enhancement to the above method, the knowledge base and the knowledge base configurator both execute on a network-connected server hosted by the enterprise offering products and/or services. A GUI user interface application is downloaded from the server to any platform used by a client wishing to purchase products or services. Having downloaded the user interface, the client can manipulate the network-hosted configurator over a data link between the client""s station and the server to configure the knowledge base to define products and/or services to be ordered. A preferred implementation of the above-described enhancement is with the server as an enterprise-hosted server connected to the Internet, and clients as users connected typically through Internet Service Providers to the Internet.
In operation of the system configurations discussed so far, a customer may access a web site and be served an interface for configuring an order for a product or service using, typically, a desktop computer having access to the WAN. A good example of this capability is exemplified with an online car dealership that allows customers to place an order for a new car and configure all of the custom options available with a particular car. When a customer accesses such an interface he or she must provide all of the information for ordering the car, including selection of options from possibilities presented within the interface. An interface that is complicated and has many possible selection options can comprise many pages of graphical interface. Such pages may include pictures of what the car looks like with and without the selected options and so on.
A user operating from a desktop computer that is relatively powerful may find such an experience comfortable and graphically entertaining, having access to technologies of surround video, audio cues and so on to aid the user in making selections. A problem with such systems that is not answered by the methods and apparatus thus far described, is that once an order is submitted it is not easily modified. This is partly because the order is configured using knowledgebase rules and constraints, which may contain many interrelationships among the available order options.
Typically, if a customer decides that he or she wishes to change one or two aspects of an order after submitting an original order, he or she must essentially re-order the product using the interface from scratch. The entire new order will replace the entire old order; the new order requiring almost as much work in terms of input and mouse clicks as was done for the old order.
With the advent of standalone Internet-capable appliances, known in the art as light or thin clients, and supporting software conventions, it has become possible to perform many WEB-based operations heretofore only possible from a relatively more powerful desktop computer. With such a device one might access a scaled-down (low-bandwidth) version of a functional Web page for example. Accomplishing changes to previously configured knowledge-based orders, however, typically requires the relatively powerful desktop computer and a complete re-order configuration as previously described.
What is clearly needed is a method and system enabling quick and efficient interaction with on-line sales and service systems from light clients such as cellular phones and hand-held computers.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a change and update system for network-based knowledgebase (KB) sales and service facilities is provided, comprising a user interface (UI) system for accessing the facility over the network, software at the facility for negotiating with the user interface, and a state component at the facility storing state data for a configured order or service at the facility, the state data including a summary of the order or service and information regarding allowable alterations and effects of alterations. A user communicates through the user interface with the software at the facility, which negotiates changes to an existing order or service configuration using data from the state component, and the software, as a result of the negotiation, updates the configured order or service configuration with the negotiated changes.
In a preferred embodiment the network is the Internet network. Also in a preferred embodiment the user interface operates on a light client and the software at the facility comprises an application interface (AI) enabled to recognize the light client, and to transmit selectable options to the user interface based on the characteristics of the light client. The light client may be one of a hand-held computer, a telephone device, or a personal digital assistant (PDA).
In a preferred embodiment, upon access by a light client, the software at the facility determines if the client has a usable UI, and if not, transmits UI software to the client prior to the negotiation. In some cases the facility is dedicated to product sales, and in some cases to one or more services.
IN another aspect of the invention a software suite for network-based knowledgebase (KB) sales and service facilities is provided, comprising a first component storing at least a summary of an original configuration for a product or service, and a second component for interfacing with a client device. The second component negotiates with the first component using input from the client device to effect a change in the configuration.
In a preferred embodiment the network is the Internet network. In some embodiments there is a third component for using the negotiated change to update the configuration. Also in some cases the client device is a light client and the second component comprises a facility for recognizing the client and communicating information to the client based on characteristics of the client.
Also in some embodiments the light client is one of a hand-held computer, a telephone device, or a personal digital assistant (PDA), and the second component provides compatible information for the particular device. In some preferred embodiments, upon access by a light client, the second component determines if the client has a usable UI, and if not, transmits UI software to the client prior to the negotiation. The software can be dedicated to either of configuration and change or service configuration and change, or to both. In some case the second component additionally stores information regarding allowable alterations and effects of alterations, and the additional information is used in negotiating changes.
In yet another aspect a method for effecting changes and updates for product and service configurations at a network-based knowledgebase (KB) sales and service facility is provided, comprising the steps of (a) storing at least a summary of a configuration separate from the configuration, in a state storage component, (b) communicating with a client device for update data to effect a change in a configuration, and (c) negotiating the change with the state storage facility. The network in preferred embodiments is Internet network. In some embodiments the client device is a light client and in step (b) the nature of the light client is determined, and the communication with the light client is conducted to be compatible with characteristics of the light client. The light client may be one of a hand-held computer, a telephone device, or a personal digital assistant (PDA).
In some cases, upon access by a light client, the software at the facility determines if the client has a usable user interface software (UI), and if not, transmits UI software to the client prior to negotiation.